


Signed in Blood

by Meatball



Series: SouMako Week 2015 [5]
Category: Free!
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, So much angst, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, Vampire!Makoto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2015-10-19
Packaged: 2018-04-27 01:49:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5029048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball/pseuds/Meatball
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Day 6 submission for SouMako Week 2015.</p><p>Prompt: Halloween/Cosplay</p><p>Makoto parts his lips, baring his teeth. He watches Sousuke’s expression change from savage fury to puzzlement, and finally, to incredulity and fear as Makoto’s incisors grow another centimeter and sharpen into fine points while the green of his irises take on a lighter, iridescent hue.</p><p> </p><p>Makoto is keeping a dangerous secret from Sousuke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Signed in Blood

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to skip the Day 6 prompt for SouMako week, since the idea I'd originally had didn't really sit well with me. But then [this beautiful art by Johanndro](http://johanndro.tumblr.com/post/131376443894/you-are-mine-soumako-week-day-6) showed up on my Tumblr for the theme and got my brain going a little more. 
> 
> I colored _just_ a little bit out of the lines for the prompt. Oops.
> 
> As usual, I haven't beta'd this.

“Makoto, do you love me?”

“What? Of course I do!” Makoto stands at the kitchen counter, eyebrows furrowed. Sousuke had grown distant over the last two weeks, saying the barest words as they passed each other coming home and going to work. It’s hard enough having such different work shifts, scarcely seeing each other as it is, but they both had been away even more hours than normal. It seems to have started to take its toll on him and, by proxy, their relationship. And now this.

“What is this about, Sousuke?” There was no point in beating around the bush. _Might as well take care of this now_. Makoto actually has the night off and Sousuke is home early. It was as good a time as any to talk.

Sousuke sits silently at the kitchen table, arms tented, mouth and chin resting against his fingers. He breathes deeply, slowly, with his eyes closed, as if trying to calm himself.

“Sousuke- ?”

“Where did you go two nights ago?”

“What?”

“You weren’t at work. I called.” Sousuke opens his eyes, but doesn’t look at him, keeping his gaze on the same spot on the table.

“Why?” Makoto asks, wary.

“Does it matter?” Sousuke’s grim mask starts to crack and Makoto can see the pain he’s hiding underneath. “You weren’t there.” He takes a deep breath. “You weren’t at work the night before, either. You weren’t even scheduled.” The air between them thickens.

“So tell me, Makoto: where did you go if you weren’t at work?”

“Sousuke, I-,” Makoto begins.

“I’ll tell you where you went,” Sousuke answers for him, jaw clenched. He turns to Makoto, blue-green eyes darkened yet fiery. “You were at a bar. You walked out with some guy and you went to the park and made out with him and _who knows what else_?” With the last words he slams a fist onto the table. Makoto ought to have been startled but he isn’t. Sousuke’s breathing heavily now, his pent-up anger finally exploding.

“You followed me?” Makoto asks. He’s surprised by how calm his own voice is, given the circumstances. Sousuke’s response is not at all as relaxed.

“ _Oh! Should I not have_? Should I have just stayed home and kept on being oblivious?” Sousuke gets up abruptly, causing the chair to scrape back across the floor. “Wouldn’t that have been just. so. convenient?”

“You know what else?” he asks, not even allowing the space of a breath for Makoto to say something. “I’ve been looking some shit up. You’re not even sick, are you?”

At this, Makoto’s eyes widen in surprise.  
  
“So I’m right, then?” Sousuke sneers at the confirmation. “You’re not sick. Not even a cold!”

“Lupus? Really?” He continues and points an accusing finger at Makoto’s forehead. “I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours but _pretending_ to be sick with something you know you don’t have is fucked.”

The dark-haired man turns around and walks away, towards the front door, and picks up a duffel bag from the entryway. _When did he-?_

Sousuke breathes out sharply. His voice is lower, more controlled, but still seething. “I’m staying at Rin’s,” he says with finality, opens the door, and walks out.

Makoto makes his way to the table, sitting in the nearest chair.  It’s fascinating, he thinks, how calm his mind is, yet his hands are shaking.

 _Maybe this is for the best_ , he tells himself, as the tears start falling down his cheeks.

 

* * *

 

Makoto is home when Sousuke comes back two nights later. He looks up at the door from the armchair facing it. Sousuke looks surprised to see him there and starts to actively ignore him on his way to the bedroom. Makoto’s not sure what makes him stop, but the stern face falls away into a look of horrified concern.

He drops his bag in the hallway and strides to Makoto, cradling his face with both hands and lifting his face to see better. “Makoto…”

“Sou…,” Makoto replies weakly.

“Your eyes...they’re so red,” Sousuke murmurs, running a thumb over his cheek. “You’re _freezing_! What’s- Have you eaten anything? Have you _slept_?”

 _What a stupid question, Sousuke. Of course, I haven’t._ The thoughts don’t quite make it out of his mouth. All he can do right then is mumble a feeble, “No.”

Sousuke drops his hands away and goes toward the linen closet for a blanket. Makoto musters up what energy he has left and calls to him.

“Sousuke, wait,” he swallows, coating his dry throat. Sousuke turns around in his tracks.

“No. I can’t have you be like-,” he gestures at Makoto’s form. “-like this.”

Makoto manages a weak snort, just a small puff of air really, and shakes his head. “Please, Sousuke,” his voice cracks. “Please...sit.” He nods to the nearby couch. “Let me explain.” He takes a long, cleansing breath. “You need to know. Everything.”

Sousuke hesitates and Makoto understands. All he can do at this point is ask and hope. He never should have kept this from Sousuke.

Hope wins out. This time. Makoto needs more of it if he wants Sousuke to let him get through this whole thing. Sousuke sits down on the couch, next to Makoto’s armchair.

“You’re right,” Makoto begins. “It’s not lupus.” He hears Sousuke’s breathing stop at the confirmation. “But I’m-, I’m sick. I _am_. Kind of. And yes, I’ve been going to that club when I’m not at work at night, but-,” he looks straight into Sousuke’s eyes. “I swear to you, I’m not cheating on you.”

Sousuke’s hands tighten into fists on his knees. He takes a deep breath but says nothing. Makoto looks down at his own hands, pale and weak and cold. The doubts begin to seep in. Sousuke will never believe him. There’s no way. This whole thing is just ridiculous.

“Sou-,” his voice wavers and for a second, he entertains the idea of just dismissing everything. Letting Sousuke leave and cutting ties. But he can’t. So he just goes for it.

“I’m a vampire.” _There. It’s out_. “All this weird shit: the illness, insisting on working nights, photosensitivity, even that club. It’s because I’m a vampire.”

Sousuke is silent. Makoto looks up from his hands and to Sousuke and all he sees is rage -- indignation and disbelief. His shoulders are hunched, heaving with every breath. He looks ready to punch something.

“Are you fucking _kidding_ me, Makoto?” Makoto wasn’t prepared for the roar that comes out of Sousuke and he actually flinches. “What the _FUCK_?” Sousuke stands up from the couch and backs away.  “What the _hell_ kind of idiot do you think I am? Are you _enjoying_ yourself? What kind of morbid pleasure are you getting from this?”

 _He’s going to leave._ Makoto doesn’t want to risk that. He needs to stop this now. “Sousuke! Stop!” he yells, with more force than he’d intended, but it works. The shock of Makoto yelling at all would probably had sufficed to quiet Sousuke but there is something else behind it, Makoto knows, that calls his attention.

“Look, Sou,” he instructs, voice lowered but urgent nonetheless. He gets up from the chair and walks toward Sousuke, who stays rooted in place, staring defiantly. “ _Look_.”

Makoto parts his lips, baring his teeth. He watches Sousuke’s expression change from savage fury to puzzlement, and finally, to incredulity and fear as Makoto’s incisors grow another centimeter and sharpen into fine points while the green of his irises take on a lighter, iridescent hue.

Makoto steps back, hoping Sousuke understands that he’s safe, but he keeps his vampire form to ensure that his boyfriend knows he’s not imagining this. Sousuke stares, stumbling back onto the couch, jaw slack.

“T- this can’t- ,” he stammers. His gaze flicks down to the floor, looking for answers. “This can’t be real.” He whispers the words to himself then looks back at Makoto, his eyes pleading. “This isn’t real, Makoto!” Tears of disbelief spill from his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Sousuke,” Makoto replies as he sits back down, his own tears welling up. He wipes them away but it’s too late. Sousuke has seen them.

“Oh, my god,” he breathes, staring at the blood-tinged smears on Makoto’s cheeks. “Oh, my god.”

So they sit, watching each other for what seems like hours, when in reality, it’s only minutes. Sousuke finally finds the wherewithal to break the silence.

“How long?”

“Five years.” _Longer than we’ve been together_.

“How?”

“Accident. Sort of.” Makoto pauses but Sousuke makes no other comment so he continues explaining, his face finally returning to normal. “I got mugged. Stabbed. Got me in an alley on the way home from school and left me there. She saved me.” He stops again and thinks better of it. “At least at the time, I thought she did. I think she thought so too.”

“She?”

Makoto shakes his head. “You don’t know her. I don’t think you’ve ever met. Not through me, anyway. She’s not usually around here.”

Sousuke nods so Makoto goes on.

“She told me she could help. That she could save me. I could live forever, she said. And boy, doesn’t that sound good when you’re dying,” he smiles ruefully, eyes glazing over at the memory.

“Makoto…,” Green eyes look over to Sousuke, who makes no effort to hide his tears. Makoto offers him a sympathetic smile. “Who else knows?”

“No one.”

“No one?” Sousuke’s eyes widen in surprise.

“Not even Haru.” Now _that_ definitely drew a look. “I couldn’t tell anyone, Sou. I didn’t want anyone to know.” _Especially not you_. “Well, I take that back. The people at the club knew, but that’s different.”

“The club.” It was a statement and a question all at once.

“It’s a vampire club,” Makoto states matter-of-factly. “Aiko -- the one who made me -- she told me about it.”

“What- ,” Sousuke takes a breath, wiping his tears away and feeling his way around questions he surely didn’t know he’d ever have to ask. “What happens in this vampire club, Makoto? Are there a lot of you? Do you- ,”

“It’s mostly just a place for us to meet up, Sou. Be with…,” It’s Makoto’s turn to hesitate. He hadn’t expected Sousuke to be so...open. Curious. He feels a bit of relief. “Be around our kind.” He smiles. He knows Sousuke will understand at least that, which he confirms with a nod.

“Some people hook up there, yes,” he fields the question before it is asked. “It’s just like any other bar. I don’t. I just…,” he watches for Sousuke’s reaction to the coming confession. “I eat.”

A look of absolute horror takes over Sousuke’s face. Makoto lets him ride the feelings going through him for several moments before speaking again. “Sousuke, I-,”

“Do you- have you killed…”

“No,” Makoto shakes his head. “Never,” he reiterates. Sousuke’s posture loosens in visible relief.

Makoto tells him about familiars: humans that know about the vampires’ existence and provide themselves as sources of food. The man at the park was a familiar, Makoto explains. He’s not dead and in fact, was a friend. Who also happens to be food.

“So it’s like a blood bank?”

Makoto has to chuckle. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Sousuke looks back down at the floor and sits in silence. Makoto just sits back in his chair and closes his eyes. This has been more exhausting than he’d expected but finally being able to tell someone was cathartic.

Still, Sousuke has a lot to think about and while the decision to stay or go is his to make, Makoto takes comfort in knowing that Sousuke would make his decision knowing why he needed to keep this secret.

Several minutes pass. Makoto might have fallen asleep; he’s not sure at this point. It’s Sousuke’s voice that stirs him from his rest.

“Mako?” Makoto smiles at the sound of his nickname.

“Hm?” His eyes are so heavy. He has trouble opening them. He hears the shuffle of Sousuke getting up from the couch and moving about the room.

“When was the last time you a- fed?” Makoto’s eyes flutter open and finds Sousuke standing in front of him.

He shrugs. “I don’t know.” He cocks his head to the side, muddled thoughts coming together. His eyes widen and now he’s awake.

“You should eat,” Sousuke states simply.

Makoto sits up, steadying himself against the lightheadedness that threatened to overtake him. “Sousuke, no!”

He is met with a determined look. _Shit_. “Sousuke, I didn’t tell you all that so I can feed off of you!”

“I know that, Mako,” Sousuke replies with slight annoyance. “I’m not offering because you told me.” He kneels in front of Makoto. “Babe. Please.”

“You don’t even know what you’re asking for, Sou.”

“Am I gonna die?”

“No.”

“Then just do it,” he insists, petulant. _Two days with Rin and he acts like this_. “You look like shit.” _Two days_. He rubs at his eyes.

Makoto studies Sousuke’s face, reaching out to caress a cheek, tracing the marks left by his tears. “It’s going to hurt,” he warns.

“I know.”

“Just this once.”

“No.” Makoto stiffens at the assertion. Sousuke’s voice is firm, decisive. “I don’t like that you can’t come to me for this, Mako. If…if I’m not enough-,” his voice falters but he swallows and continues on. “-then fine, go to the club. Get what you need. But please,” blue-green eyes start to glisten. “Please, start with me.”

“Sou…,” Makoto breathes.

“Please…,” Sousuke’s warm hands take his, pressing them against his equally warm lips. “Please, Mako.”

Makoto nods, tears once again threatening to break free. “Okay, Sou.” he submits. “Okay.”

Sousuke leans forward, capturing Makoto’s lips. “You’re so cold,” he sighs against them. He turns his head, exposing the line of his neck. “Mako…”

Makoto hesitates briefly. He can feel the warmth emanating from Sousuke, practically see the blood flowing through his artery. He wraps his arms around Sousuke, fingers weaving into his hair, cradling the back of his head. His teeth extend once again, eyes glowing brighter as he leans into Sousuke’s neck and pierces his skin.

A cry escapes Sousuke’s throat, his fingers digging into Makoto’s back. Makoto is so very hungry, but he wills away the desire to take anything more than what is necessary. When all is said and done, Makoto is warmer, if only a little, and they rest against each other, utterly spent.

 

* * *

 

Seven months.

They’d been living with their arrangement for seven months when Sousuke, once again, upends things.

“Makoto, _please_.” He reaches out, grabbing Makoto by the arms, trying to pulling him close. The ocean behind them goes about its business, lapping against the shore, empty of visitors except for two men walking in the light of a full moon.

“I _can’t_ , Sousuke!” Makoto cries, shaking him off and stepping back, stumbling on wet sand. “Please don’t ask me to do this to you!”

“I can’t let you suffer this on your own.”

“You’re asking me to kill you!”

“I’m asking to spend eternity with _you_!”

Makoto stands in place, unable to speak, bloody tears streaming down his cheeks. He knows -- _knows_ \-- this argument is lost, but he doesn’t want to give it up. He couldn’t subject Sousuke to this life. This undeath.

“I can’t…,” he sobs, entirely unconvincing.

“I won’t hate you,” Sousuke reassures him, daring to step closer.

“We’d never be able to explain…” Makoto begins. _They’ll all know. They can’t know._

“Then we’ll move. Away from here,” Sousuke speaks quickly, filling in the spaces where Makoto’s doubts could rest. “Somewhere where people don’t know who we are.”

He takes another step closer, fingers lifting Makoto’s chin. Sousuke leans down and places a soft kiss on Makoto’s lips, tongue licking at the corners where tears had gathered.

“I know what I’m asking for, Mako,” he leans his forehead against Makoto’s, breathing the words  against his lips.

Makoto sniffs, wrapping his arms around Sousuke. “You’re going to die.” He touches his lips to Sousuke’s.

“Yes.”

“It’s going to hurt,” he warns, voice breaking.

“I know.”

“Eternity’s a long time.”

“We’ll manage.”

Makoto nods, tears streaming down his face. “Okay, Sou,” he submits. “Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know where all this drama came from.
> 
>  
> 
> You can find me on [The Tumblrs](http://idontevenswim.tumblr.com).


End file.
